Chocolate...It Does a Body Good

First, a bit of background on types and strengths of chocolate:

From dark to white

Unsweetened chocolate is 100% cacao and has no
sugar content. Think “baking chocolate.”

Bittersweet chocolate is the broadest category
and has 35-99% cacao and must contain at least 35% unsweetened chocolate and
less than 12% milk solids. It can
include products called bittersweet, semisweet, dark, extra dark or extra
bittersweet.

Chocolate chips and all manner
of sweetened baking chocolates are included in this group.The higher the percentage of cacao, the
more bitter the taste. This explains why
chocolates with the least amount of sugar are most often called
bittersweet. Those with higher amounts
of sugar are called semisweet.

Cocoa powder is what remains after the cocoa
butter is extracted from cacao beans and is used for baking as well as for
making beverages, both hot and cold.

Milk chocolate in cocoa powder (with a stray malt ball)

White chocolate isn’t true chocolate at all as it
contains no chocolate liquor (chocolate in its raw, unsweetened form). It contains cocoa butter which gives it its
characteristically slight chocolaty flavor and is used primarily for eating as
well as baking.
Since it doesn’t contain cocoa solids,
it doesn’t have the same health benefits that dark chocolate has. It often has additional flavorings with
vanilla being the most common.
There have been numerous studies conducted on the benefits of eating a
small amount of dark chocolate on a daily basis, because chocolate is rich in:

iron

copper

magnesium

zinc

phosphorus

flavanols.

Flavanols are the plant
chemicals which are believed to help protect the heart, and studies are
indicating that these flavanols help to relax blood vessels and improved blood
flow, thereby lowering blood pressure.

Flavanols in chocolate have also been associated with reducing the risk
of diabetes by increasing insulin sensitivity in short term studies.

Dark chocolate is considered healthier than milk chocolate because dark
chocolate contains up to 2-3 times more flavanol-rich cocoa solids than milk
chocolate. This, combined with the fact
that dark chocolate contains less sugar and fewer milk solids, is why more and
more studies are leaning towards including dark chocolate in a healthy diet.

One study in particular, conducted by Harvard in June of 2017, found
that there seems to be a direct link between moderate chocolate consumption and
a lower risk for irregular heartbeats.

Granted, no one is suggesting that we all go out and start eating pounds
of the fudgy goodness. But the study,
which was performed on 55,500 people, clearly suggested that those who ate 2-6
servings per week had a 20% lower chance of irregular heartbeats, also known as
atrial fibrillation, one of the major contributors to stroke, clots and heart
failure.